POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive opens with a single, shocking utterance of the C-word. Yes, that C-word (or an adjectival variation of it, at least). And then another. And another, until the audience’s shock gives way to laughter, gives way to intrigue, and gives way to a collective forward lean. Thus begins Selina Fillinger’s 100-minute political romp, running through November 12 at Arena Stage’s Fichandler Stage, which cheekily abandons the usual pomp and circumstance of the Oval Office in favor of refreshing, sharp-tongued irreverence and laugh-out-loud absurdism.

Standing at nearly 6 feet 4 inches, Atlanta Mayor Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. was a formidable presence in national Democratic politics, both in spirit and stature, for three decades. Now, in Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard, a new play from the Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commission program, playwright Pearl Cleage draws on her experience as Jackson’s speechwriter and friend to contextualize his political legacy through the voices of the people who first sent him to City Hall in 1973.

For millennia, dictionaries have served to inform readers of the meanings, variations, and characteristics of countless words and phrases. Brief, colorful definitions combine to make massive, organized texts, bringing a sense of order and logic to the chaos of language. But unlike its reference book namesake, Dorothy’s Dictionary by E.M. Lewis, running through Oct. 22 at Washington Stage Guild, struggles to balance meaningful insight with pragmatic storytelling.

Sammi Cannold’s Evita begins and ends with the same striking image: an angelic white gown floating over rolling fields of white flowers. The metaphor isn’t difficult to discern as the world continues to grapple with the legacies of Eva Perón’s meteoric rise to become first lady of Argentina in the 1940s and the subsequent Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice megahit that has kept her firmly in the international consciousness long after her death. But in this fresh production, running through Oct. 15 at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall and produced in association with American Repertory Theater, director Cannold forces a closer, neon-tinged look at the myth-making of Eva Perón and the alchemy required to become a populist icon.

“I just want something loud,” now-infamous media mogul Rupert Murdoch advises editor Larry Lamb in Ink, James Graham’s dramatic recounting of the Australian businessman’s purchase of a UK tabloid, playing through September 24 at Round House Theater in a co-production with Olney Theatre Center. Under the strong direction of Olney Artistic Director Jason Loewith, the production delivers on volume, but suffers from the play’s lack of substance. Though Graham’s play thoroughly reports the who, what, where, when and how, it never fully makes the case for why this story deserves a front-page spread.

As a tidal wave of anti-LGBTQIA bills cascades through state legislatures, the undercurrent of fear felt by so many queer and trans people can seem at odds with the rainbow displays of (often corporate) Pride Month celebrations. And, after the parade has passed by, our community’s most vulnerable, including those living with HIV, are too often left to once again fend for themselves. That acute disparity between celebration and survival makes Donja R. Love’s ‘one in two,’ presented by Mosaic Theater Company and running through June 25 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, feel all the more urgent.

This is a review about death, err — a review about a show about death. At least that’s what ‘Beetlejuice,’ playing through May 28 at the National Theatre, frequently asserts itself to be over the course of its two-and-a-half-hour run. But this ‘Beetlejuice,’ based on the 1988 Tim Burton film of the same name, is less about death than it might have you believe, and more about the ways we continue living in the wake of shattering loss.

Making its world premiere at Keegan Theatre, Graziella Jackson’s The Wilting Point is the first of four in her Elements series, documenting life on the brink of climate catastrophe and urging viewers to trust young activists.